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Being There was released in October of 1996 and I saw Wilco live for the first time a month later at Mercury Lounge for a show that would change the course of my musical life. Like many of the attendees of this year’s Solid Sound Festival, I’ve seen Wilco probably more than fifty times in a variety of locations. I’ve seen multiple shows supporting all of the albums of their career, I’ve seen acoustic sets, many guest appearances, the all-covers set. I’ve seen them play in small halls, big halls, theatres, baseball stadiums, a brewery, festivals, and even at Madison Square Garden. But the seminal event of seeing and hearing the band close-up play brand new Being There songs was an experience that took me down this path and permanently affixed those songs to my psyche.

Twenty-something years later, Wilco delivered on the now-traditional (2013-all covers, 2015-all acoustic) Solid Sound Friday request set by playing the album straight-through. It says something about the staying power of the material that almost all of these songs are either still set staples or occasional plays for the band’s “regular” shows. But hearing the material in sequence brings me back to the cramped confines of Mercury on that chilly November night and reminds me why I still go to such lengths to see Wilco. But oh, if the Being There performance was all you expected from Friday night’s set, the “encore” segment was a huge Wilco curveball. Upon returning to the stage, the band jumped into “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart”, a not uncommon encore song. And then kept playing — the entire Yankee Hotel Foxtrot also in its entirety. Its took the opening notes of rarely played “Radio Cure” for our correspondent Gr8fulPete to recognize what was happening, but when it dawned on the crowd you can hear the shock and utter surprise of those witnessing this encore set for the ages.

Pete also recorded Saturday night’s set and the Sunday Tweedy & Friends set and those will be coming to the site in the coming days.

Pete recorded this show with his high end Neumann cards from directly at the soundboard cage area and the sound quality is outstanding. Enjoy!

The Friday night Wilco show of the band’s semi-annual Solid Sound Festival has become the thing of surprises. Two years ago, the Friday performance became the now-legendary all-covers show that blew up the internet overnight and is by far the most popular recording in the history of this site. For this year’s Fest, the opening night set featured an all-acoustic performance with the band playing it in an old school centered microphone bluegrass style. While this configuration is not entirely new to Wilco — the encore segments of the 20th Anniversary the Fall tour featured a similar setup — the performance of an entire two-plus hour show certainly was a novelty. Additionally, in the long-form set the various band members got a chance to stretch their instrumentation wings — we heard some mandolin, accordion, banjo, slide guitar and stand-up piano. The show’s setlist was not particularly rare, but that wasn’t the point. It was the band’s ability to provide interesting new arrangements to Wilco classics that makes this show a special event. And, in celebration of the recent win for fairness, Jeff Tweedy saluted marriage equality by declaring in the middle of “Hesitating Beauty” that it was “so much nicer singing this song now that everyone can get married”. We’re streaming that track below.

Wilco will be on the Festival circuit for the most part this Summer, dates here. We’ll catch them again at the Gathering of the Vibes in Connecticut in August.

Our friend Pete recorded this show from the area directly in front of the soundboard with the hypercardioid Neumanns. As with all of Wilco FOH Stan’s work, this was is another excellent mix and the sound quality (other than the boisterous crowd) is quite excellent. Enjoy!

Please note that the files are incorrectly labeled 6/25 on the download.

If you download this recording from NYCTaper we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Wilco, visit their website, and purchase their 20th Anniversary Box Set Alpha Mike Foxtrot from their website [HERE].

When on the opening night of your own festival, you’ve just played a two-and-half hour all covers set that has literally blown up on the internet, what do you do for an encore. When its Wilco, arguably America’s greatest band, you play an equally long show with deep cuts, with a judicious sampling of early material, with guests, with prize winners and with hilarious banter. Wilco followed up their show of the year with a “standard” show that rivaled in quality the memorable night before. Of the light moments, perhaps the best combination of humor and topicality was the band’s dedication of Wilco’s ode to alcoholism “Passenger Side” to the festival’s “bad boys” Foxygen, who were also the subject of multiple Tweedy barbs throughout the set. We’re streaming that track below. Wilco is currently on the AmericanaRama tour which comes to the NYC area for a show on the Hoboken Waterfront on July 26.

After we left North Adams on the crazy roadtrip of Friday night, we were fortunate to still have friend of the site gr8fulpete to record and offer his Saturday night files to us. Pete’s recently upgraded rig performed excellently on this windy night and the result is a superb recording. Enjoy!

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